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tweet, tweet
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train whistles that echoed through the hills. The name stuck, and the
train was known as Tweetsie ever since.
Unfortunately, the affection felt for Tweetsie by mountain dwellers could not protect
her from a changing economy. The construction of modern roads made the mountain
communities more accessible, and Tweetsie felt the competition from trucking
companies. Severe floods came in August, 1940 and obliterated sections of the line,
hastening the demise of the mountain railroads.
On October 16, 1950 the ET&WNC Railroad
Company came to an official end. Tweetsie
Locomotive #12 -- the last of the original 13
coal-fired ET&WNC steam engines -- was
purchased by railroad enthusiasts and
moved to Virginia. Her stay there was cut
short when hurricane Hazel swept through
the state and wiped out the train tracks. The
owners found a buyer for #12 in Gene
Autry. The movie cowboy intended to ship
the locomotive out west to use in films.
Grover Robbins, Jr., a native of the North Carolina Mountains, decided that it was time
to bring Tweetsie back where she belonged. Robbins purchased Tweetsie from Gene
Autry and in 1956 the little engine headed back to Robbins' home town of Blowing
Rock.
North Carolina Governor Luther Hodges designated May 20, 1956 as
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Tweetsie
Homecoming Day
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but it was only a partial homecoming. The locomotive spent
several months in Hickory, NC undergoing complete restoration. A year later, on May
23, 1957, Bragg McLeod of Moss Trucking Company in Charlotte moved Tweetsie and
some of the original rail cars from Hickory to a scenic spot near Blowing Rock.
In the summer of 1957, Tweetsie Railroad became North Carolina's newest travel
attraction, as she made her first run at her new location just a couple of miles away from
the old railroad station in Boone. People came from all over the South to welcome her
famous whistle back to the mountains.
Tweetsie now makes a scenic three-mile loop through the mountains near Blowing
Rock, not far from the original end of the line station in Boone. Tweetsie also operates a
complete steam locomotive repair shop, rebuilding and restoring locomotives for other
theme parks and museums.
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